President Musk

"Vice President Trump" was briefly trending on "X" Thursday, which is... well, funny, for one thing. The implication, obviously, is that Elon Musk is America's de facto head of state. That the joke was trending on the social media platform Musk controls suggests he wasn't upset about the notion. Musk, who's all set to run a new agency tasked with trimming federal payrolls under the guise of "efficiency," has inserted himself into the US government funding debate over the last 48 hours, insisti

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32 thoughts on “President Musk

  1. Former (and soon to be former) Republican Speakers of the House are going to need years of therapy and may need to form their own support group or they’ll be sitting in their rocking chairs muttering to themselves in old age after all Trump and his clown car have put them through. This governing thing is hard when you have to be the adult in the room.

    I’d love to see Republicans rip the band aid off and show the country what happens when you put Musk in charge. I’m all for electing him as speaker at this point since the country obviously gave President Mump an overwhelming mandate with their whopping 1% margin of victory.

  2. “Trump and Musk are in the process of setting up an out-in-the-open kleptocratic oligarchy so brazen it’d make the Kremlin blush.”?

    I’ve long thought, and occasionally expressed the opinion, half-seriously, that the US Congress in cahoots with the Trump Organization is the largest racketeering organization ever devised, and ought to be prosecuted under RICO. Now, with TRUSK calling the shots, it appears half-serious is a too-restrained opinion, with a son Michael taking up the reins from Don Vito

    At least Musk’s a lot smarter than Trump, if no more an adult in the room…but that could be like saying that at least Putin has ICBMs that can be more precisely targeted, in order to limit collateral damage…

  3. Shutting down the government, especially at Christmas, will not be good headlines. I wonder if TruMusk are focused on their inside-Beltway power maneuvering and taking their eye off the public opinion ball and/or are mistaking the FoX echo chamber for the latter.

  4. This sounds a little bit like Chomsky’s articulation of privatization: defund something so that it stop working well thus creating the preconditions and policy window for a “solution” and then auction it off. A government stuck in shut-down seems like the perfect set up to start hacking off agencies or gutting them. Then the private sector can start sucking our tax money out of the carcass of the federal government. Cue Musk’s seventh company.

  5. Very timely, sir. This morning I noticed that sentiment bubbling up in the comments about news articles about the sudden impass. Things like “I voted for Trump, not Musk

    Some even suggested that DJT will be happy to leave the annoying day’to-day stuff to Elon so he can be freed up to play golf and issue
    vernight pronouncements.

  6. I’m old school and first thing this morning I called my representative, a Republican, asking when in the hell was Elon Musk elected president? Of course I might as well just stepped outside and yell it to the sky. This is what we get with a public more interested in the next show to watch or what influencer is hot.

      1. This had me laughing John.

        I have an old drone that I haven’t flown in probably 5 years. I’m tempted to dust it off and just have it hover over my neighbors’ house. He’s on our local city council, and the freakout would be hilarious.

        1. Ive never seen a drone over my house (but I’ve never held a position of civic authority higher than volunteer president of local business chamber). But should they start to appear, i might have to see if i still have skill with the Wrist Rocket of my Reckless Youth…

  7. Debt ceiling is used by Reps against Dems more than it is used by Dems against Reps, so tactically Dems should withhold votes until it is permanently done away with – but, also tactically, should require the deed be done on Trump’s watch.

    1. Trump said the quiet part out loud on this issue in a recent interview with Fox. He very much wants Biden to have to be the one to raise/remove the debt ceiling so that he (Trump) doesn’t have to take any negative publicity hit.

    1. 38 defectors on Trump’s first budget bill? It sure didn’t take long for his overwhelming mandate to evaporate. You hate to see it 🙂 I just hope he’s as miserable as all the people he’ll be furloughing and takes it out on Musk.

  8. Oh the irony, a man who should have been president and who warned us ad nauseam about the danger of morally corrupt billionaires not being held accountable now has to tell us that these people shouldn’t be running the government he should have been president of so he could have held them accountable.

    Reminder: drinking heavily will not sedate you enough to be able ignore the hellscape the United States is about to become. It’ll just make you more miserable.

  9. It will be calls of “President Musk” that ultimately ruins their bromance. Musk doesn’t exactly have a lot of skill or experience with managing the fragile ego of a narcissist.

    I think you’re right about Musk’s motivations–that he’s just doing this all for his own entertainment. When you make up in the morning as the richest person on Earth and number two isn’t even close, I’m sure it leads to some existential question asking. What is there left to do? Musk’s answer was apparently to buy the presidency. He started by jumping on the DeSantis train during the brief moment when DeSantis was ahead in the polls for like a whole 5 minutes. When DeSantis spectacularly flamed out, Musk just shifted his aim and reloaded. When it gets old, he’ll move along to the next fun thing.

    Trump on the other hand has more specific motives. For one thing, he needed Musk’s clout and cash to ensure an election victory. Musk delivered, and Trump, transactional as ever, will continue to deliver the reward so long as it remains convenient.

    There’s one thing that could keep their relationship going strong a bit longer: I have a suspicion that Trump has one other thing he wants from Musk… Trump’s stake in Truth Social is worth about $4 billion. Meanwhile, revenue at TMTG barely broke the $1 million mark last quarter. At some point, Trump might well welcome Musk buying out Truth Social just like he bought Twitter. Of course, Musk would have to raise the cash somehow, but I’m sure the Saudis would be good for a bridge loan.

    1. Each has effective weapons vs the other. Trump can use govt against TSLA and SpaceX. Musk can use X to stall Rep legislation. Logically, you’d think they should suppress the egos and find a way to work together. But those are sizeable egos.

  10. In today’s news, our President endorsed the far-right party in Germany’s upcoming election:

    Elon Musk raised alarm by endorsing Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which has called for the nation to leave the European Union.

    The tech billionaire and Donald Trump adviser commented on an X post by far-right influencer Naomi Seibt, who had criticized German politician Friedrich Merz, saying the potential next chancellor was “horrified by the idea that Germany should follow Elon Musk’s and [Argentina President] Javier Milei’s example,” and Musk replied with a brief endorsement.
    “Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk posted at 1:03 a.m.

  11. One ball the new “rat pack” has lost sight of. Musk can’t ever be President. He was not born in the US. He can’t be Speaker for the same reason. The Presidential Constitutional succession is Pres, VP, Speaker. He also cannon be granted any position that can create an actual law. Trump will have to sign anything Musk does and that will always put T’s butt on the line. Besides Trump will have to overcome Musk’s security clearance issues. He can’t be on the Security Council, I suspect.

    1. Yeah, but Musk can strong arm any Rep who doesn’t bend to his will using his platform and infinite money. It doesn’t take much to flip a congressional seat, and given Trump’s age and physical condition, Musk is effectively setting himself up to take control of the Republican party as well as all the far right parties across the world. To H’s point, Musk’s heel turn should frighten us as he isn’t afraid to embrace far right parties as Derek alluded to above and he has unlimited resources to put his plans into action.

      I’d be very curious to see what the dynamic is like between Musk and his old pal, Thiel, these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if Thiel turns out to be a modern day J. Edgar Hoover.

  12. “The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” Musk wrote. “Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win.”

    MAGA in turmoil. Elon and Vivek want more dark-skinned Indian and, God forbid, Chinese types, into the US. To replace chronically lazy US workers!

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